


In The Morning I'll Be Gone, But In The Evening You'll Have My Heart

by theguyabovemeisalright



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, As well as Linsday of course, Caring Gavin, Drunk Michael, Fluff, M/M, Ray is awesome, Relationship(s), slight angst, slight domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 18:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3738862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theguyabovemeisalright/pseuds/theguyabovemeisalright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin was just living life until his night is turned upside down by a fiery redhead who proceeds to yell at him then cry. There's something just so intriguing about the man that now occupies a space in Gavin's thoughts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Morning I'll Be Gone, But In The Evening You'll Have My Heart

Gavin has seen a lot as a bartender at The Bite, the most popular bar in Austin. Bachelorette parties, to teens trying to use fakes to get the most ridiculous cocktails Gavin has ever heard.

The bar owner, Geoff Ramsey took Gavin in as soon as he came to America from the UK, looking for work. After spending a day and a half loitering, and after Geoff threatened to call the cops, the two had a beer and next thing Gavin knew, he was moving into a spare bedroom above the bar with Geoff’s family and working as a bartender.

The other two bartenders besides Gavin included one of his closest friends, Ray Narvaez Jr., who came from New York and has the highest Gamerscore Gavin had ever seen. Even though Ray didn’t drink, he was a favorite at The Bite for his laidback attitude that often had people drunkenly spill their guts to him.

The other was the fiery redhead Lindsay. She made a mean cocktail and had a spunky personality that made working with her the most fun, every night. She was also confident, and strong enough to yell at someone who is being a jerk or a disturbance at the bar. It scared him how fast she is able to switch from fun-loving’ Lindsay to tough as nails Lindsay.

There were three bouncers, Ryan, Jack, and Adam. All three were big, muscular men and at first glance, Gavin thought they could snap him like a twig. But Gavin soon came to realize that they were all funny teddy bears. Jack or Adam would sometimes work as bartender if some nights got too hectic for the two manned bar. Yet Gavin knew, that in a pinch, all three were capable of throwing people out on their asses if need be, an occurrence that happened only a couple of times since Gavin started working.

Then there was Gavin, a thin Brit with hazel eyes and crazy wind-blown blonde hair that accents his comically large nose perfectly. He’s one of the best bartenders at The Bite, partly because living with the Ramsey’s helps with his ability to mix drinks, and the accent is always a hit with the college crowd and ladies. It also helps get him into a playful arguing match between the football fans that frequent the bar (“it’s not football, why do you call it that when you never use your feet?!”).

The Bite was a pretty small bar, in comparison to The Cock Byte, which was owned by Burnie Burns. After The Cock Byte became too popular, he decided to expand and entrusted Geoff with running The Bite. So it was way smaller, but a lot of people frequented the bar, mainly dedicated patrons to the Byte. But Gavin enjoyed it and helped Geoff with anything the man needed. Plus, he got to work with six of his closest friends every night, so who was he to complain.

One night, he and Lindsay were scheduled at the bar with Adam and Jack (affectionately called the Beard Brigade by Lindsay) as the bouncers. It was a pretty average night, Gavin’s side of the bar being the quietest while Lindsay had her hands full with what looked to be the local band celebrating. Every once in a while Lindsay will roll her eyes at Gavin when the bassist tried and failed to flirt with her by playing imaginary bass.

After reassuring him that she could handle it, Gavin focused on doing inventory of their stock for Geoff, who was having family time in the attached apartment to the bar. While he was counting what was behind the bar to what was in their storage area, he almost didn’t notice as a body slammed into one of the car stools with an angry huff.

“Jesus Christ. Are you going to serve me or am I going to go elsewhere?” The voiced snarled as Gavin started “What can I get you?” ending with Gavin’s friendly smile fading into a nonchalant grimace.

The voice, a very attractive man with dark curls under a dark beanie and dark eyes (Gavin cursed the dim lighting at the bar) behind thin glasses rubbed a hand down his face. 

“Sorry man, shitty as fuck night. Can I get bourbon, straight?” The man spat, less angrily, sliding his credit card on the counter before looking around the bar.

Gavin blinked. “No water?” He couldn’t help but ask. The only people he knew that could handle strong liquor without a chase was Geoff and his wife Griffon, and even after living with them for four months he was still impressed.

The man fixed his glare at Gavin. “Did I fucking stutter?” he bit out.

Gavin raised his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry, mate. Just pretty impressed, is all.” He mused at he set the man’s card aside, put a small tumbler on the bar counter and poured the order.

“'Mate'? What the fuck is this James Bond shit?”

Gavin fixed him with a hard stare as he set the tumbler in front of the man. “What’s with all this Joe Pesci shite?” 

Gavin quickly realized his mistake at insulting a customer. He flushed and started to mumble out an apology. The man only huffed a quiet laugh before sobering his features and downing the drink in one fell swoop.

Distain was apparent on his face, yet he waved a hand as a signal for another, which Gavin promptly supplied. After two more drinks of bourbon, the man switched to whiskey on rocks, and Gavin left him to work on other customers. Yet after a few more glasses of the whiskey, the man was looking a little worse for wear and Gavin started to get a little concern. Especially the way the man started swaying and muttering in his stool.

Gavin tentatively approached him. “I think you’ve had enough for one night.”

The man’s head snapped up and fixed Gavin with an angry stare with red rimmed eyes and a pale face. For a moment Gavin thought he was crying, until the man exploded with anger.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? British fuck, I pay you to give me d-drinks, dammit. Mind your own fucking business, alright? Why don’t you leave me the fuck alone, just like everyone else fucking does! P-piece of shit, Jersey asshole.” The man slurred, fury coloring his face red before he seemed to slump in his seat and started to cry into his drink.

Shell-shocked, Gavin looked towards Adam, who saw the whole thing and motioned if he should help. Gavin subtly declined and asked Jack to cover his side of the bar as he rounded the counter to sit next to the now sobbing man.

Gavin opened up his mouth but the man beat him to it. He looked at Gavin with such pain filled eyes that it physically hurt Gavin.

“The bastard was cheating on me…in my own fucking bed. With a girl. How can I compete with that?” He whispered for Gavin to hear. Gavin understood immediately, and felt his own anger flare up in his chest.

“Listen to me,” Gavin started, waiting to see if he had the man’s attention. It was wobbly, but he pressed on. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s his fault for hurting you. He lost a top guy, in my opinion.”

The man sniffled and chuckled as he wiped his nose on his hoodie sleeve. “'Top'? You British bastard.” But he said it with a grin, so Gavin didn’t take any offense to it. In fact, he beamed because when the man looked at Gavin, he saw a little dimple. Gavin couldn’t resist a good dimple.

Gavin held out his hand. “M’name is Gavin. Gavin Free.”

The man shook Gavin’s outstretched hand. “Michael Jones.” He replied before finishing off his drink.

“As a human, and a bartender, I have to ask. You’re not driving home, are you?” Gavin inquired gently.

Michael scoffed bitterly. “I got no home anymo’.” He said as he indicated with his head a stuffed backpack at his feet. “Can I just stay until bar close?” He asked in a small voice as he swirled the last dregs of his drink. Gavin couldn’t deny the man anything.

He glanced at his watch and saw it read only midnight, but seeing as it was a Tuesday night, the bar crowd was thinning out pretty early. “Don’t you have work in the morning?” Gavin asked. Michael shook his head. Gavin smiled shyly and answered in an affirmative.

“Do you want me to sit with you still?” Gavin asked, seeing Jack staring longingly at the door. Gavin knew that Jack’s shift ended fifteen minutes ago and he needed to study for his college course.

Michael waved him off. “You can go back to work, I suppose.”

Gavin put a reassuring hand on Michael’s forearm. “I’ll be on this side of the bar all night, I promise.” Michael gave him a half smile that didn’t reach his still leaking eyes before Gavin relieved Jack.

Gavin handed Michael a light beer before going back to helping customers and occasionally the drunken bassist who had to have his bandmates escort him out of the bar.

Throughout the night, Gavin kept a close eye on Michael, who didn’t seem to be sobering up anytime soon. In fact, Gavin was pretty sure the whiskey and bourbon was still in his system, and making him slightly more intoxicated as the night went on.

At one, Lindsay went home, while Michael slammed his head onto the counter, and promptly fell asleep. Adam came up to the bar since there where only three customers left. He asked Gavin if he needed to call a cab for Michael, and after Gavin said no, they ended up playing an easy card game for Gavin or Adam to leave whenever they were needed.

At bar close, Adam helped Gavin finish cleaning the bar and getting ready, asking again if he needed to do something about Michael. After Gavin reassured him that he could handle Michael as well as closing the bar, Adam left at around two thirty. Gavin quickly finished up his duties before approaching the sleeping man, gently waking him.

“Michael,” Gavin cooed as he gently shook his shoulders. “Do I need to call anyone?”

Michael slowly blinked awake, looked at Gavin as a couple of new tears escaped. “I’m all alone, Gavvy. Richard is gone. I have no one.” He slurred as his bottom lip started to quiver.

Gavin’s heart soared at the nickname, one he didn’t particularly mind, but coming from Michael’s mouth gave him a rush, just to have it fall at his words. Gavin nervously scratched the back of his neck, looking anywhere beside the insanely attractive and impossibly cute man in front of him.

“Y-you can stay with me. If-if you want, that is.” Gavin stuttered. Not exactly a stranger of inviting people into his bed, for some reason Michael got him all flustered.

Gavin’s train of thought was interrupted when he heard drunk giggling.

“I’m getting picked up by a sexy Brit. Gavin, I would humbly accept your offer to get into your pants.” Michael slurred as he did his best impersonation of a posh accent that had Gavin shaking his head with a fond smile.

“Not like that, you dope.” Gavin muttered, but Michael paid him no mind.

After careful maneuvering and a stubbed toe and bruised knee later, Gavin helped Michael into his portion of the apartment, where he had his own mini-kitchen and living room connected to his bedroom, on the top floor. He sat Michael down on his couch and fetched him a cool glass of water before scouring his bedroom for an extra blanket and pillow. By the time he came back, Michael had falling over onto his face, screwing up his glasses, snoring softly into one of the throw pillows. Gavin’s heart swelled at the sight. He gingerly removed Michael’s glasses, doing his best to be quiet, until in his carefulness, knocked the glasses of water onto the hardwood floor, making an insane amount of racket for three a.m. Though the sound didn’t stir Michael, so Gavin quickly removed Michael’s shoes, covered him with a blanket, and trotted off to bed after setting a new glass of water as well as an ibuprofen for Michael’s sure-to-be hangover.

That night, Gavin dreamt of red curls, chocolate eyes and softly spoken words.

In the morning, Gavin awoke to a crumbled blanket, empty glass, and a hurt he couldn’t describe.

\--

That night, Gavin kind of moved his way through his shift with Ray. Ryan and Adam were bouncers, yet things were a lot slower so they took it upon themselves to man the jukebox and play their songs over and over, much to the chagrin of Gavin. Unfortunately for Gavin, Ray picked up on his sour mood immediately.

“Hey Vav, what’s up with you today?” Ray said as he needlessly wiped down the counter with a rag for the sixth time in ten minutes.

“Nothing, X-Ray. Just forget about it.” Gavin mumbled numbly as he added more limes to the fruit box because he wasn’t doing anything else.

Ray watched him for a few moments before asking. “Is this about that guy you took home last night?”

Gavin sputtered before whipping his head to look at his friend.

“Wh-what?! You weren’t even here last night!” Gavin shrieked.

Ray cheered in victory. “Ah-ha! I knew it!” He whooped before quickly sobering up. “Nah, Adam told me that you were hooked on this angry dude all last night. Refused for him to even take the sucker home. So what, another pass out on you during the do?” Ray smirked.

But Gavin just sighed. “No, it wasn’t like that. Nothing happened. N-not that I wanted anything to happen!” He trailed off before quickly amending the connotations Ray probably had. He sighed before running a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, Ray. He was hurting, and I couldn’t help but want to be with him, ya know? Like, I genuinely like him.” Gavin finished, sighing sadly before wiping down a little lemon juice from the counter with his rag.

“So what happened?” Ray asked quietly, knowing something was bothering Gavin more than not just having someone over for the night with no intent on sleeping with them.

“He left this morning before I even woke up. No note, nothing. I know he doesn’t have a place to go to, so I have no idea where he went, or even if I’ll ever see him again. I don’t know. I’m just…sad.” Gavin finished quietly, leaving Ray to ponder what he said as he helped the group of friends that just entered the bar, plastering a forced smile.

The night started to pick up rather quickly, which Gavin was grateful because it a, didn’t give Ray a chance to pick up where the conversation ended and b, occupied Gavin’s mind so he didn’t have to think about Michael Jones. 

It was only when the bar as steady and all the patrons were content that Gavin’s mind started to drift to Michael and his curls that Gavin just wanted to run his hands through just to feel their texture, his small pink lips that Gavin just wanted an innocent taste, his nose that looked so cute whenever it scrunched up as Michael processed what Gavin was saying, his chocolate brown eyes that were framed by a black and blue bruise—wait a minute, what?

Gavin blinked and there stood Michael Jones, sporting a fresh, swollen eye. Gavin stared as Michael gave a bright smile and a casual wave, completely forgetting that he has a fricken’ black eye?!

Gavin quickly walked to the opening of the bar and approached Michael. A flurry of emotions swam through his brain, but one that was more dominate was his concern that his Michael was hurt.

“Michael!” Gavin instinctively cupped the man’s face in his hands to inspect his eye. “What happened?” He shrieked, earning a playful grimace from Michael.

“I went to confront that asshole today. He actually looks a lot worse than me, which is kind of hilarious, seeing as he’s a meaty bag of shit.” Michael smiled proudly.

“But, why? And why are you here?” Gavin’s hands dropped to his sides as he glanced at the floor, still hurt from his disappearance this morning.

“I wanted to officially end things with Richard before I saw you again.”

Gavin sniffed, not sure how to respond when a soft hand touched his wrist and an even softer pair of lips brushed against his cheek.

Gavin’s cheeks flared up as he snapped his head to see a blushing, but confident smile on Michael’s face.

“I wanted to be officially free before I asked you out on a date.” He ended shyly

Gavin was so stunned that he was speechless. Unfortunately for both men, Michael took it as a rejection.

“Oh my fucking God. You don’t swing that—Jesus I’m so sorry, forget I said anything.” Michael moved to step away before Gavin laced his fingers with Michael’s.

“I get done at two thirty. A date sounds nice, but first I need to do some incredible naughty things that I didn’t get a chance to do this morning.” Gavin said confidently, elated that this was really happening.

Michael was floored by Gavin’s flare of confidence, but he added it to the list of many things he was going to love about Gavin.

“That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. Can I get my credit card back?”

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic was taken too so well I started to write a second, then I was at work and someone said something about how bartenders hear all kinds of sob stories and I immediately had to write this instead. Thank you for the support!


End file.
